20150408-170537-04

PRC TTA coaching staff initiated outreach via e-mail correspondence to this grant site's designated point of contact to coordinate and schedule a conference call. A call was held on March 26,2015 with the Kentucky team for the purpose of identifying their training and technical assistance needs and determining how the PRC can best support this site's implementation of their grant. During this call, the PRC TA coaches reviewed the key program aspects of the grant and asked clarifying questions about site-specific priorities and implementation challenges. This needs assessment process will help the PRC TTA coaching staff to better understand the range of proposed activities and to identify core technical assistance needs shared across multiple sites. This process will also inform the development of a TTA plan for the BJA FY '14 PREA demonstration grant sites. The PRC TTA coaches also described the range of materials and support available to the agency.

Scheduled and held call with the Kentucky representatives to introduce them to their designated PRC coach while providing quarterly outreach to the site for the purpose of check-in and progress monitoring. KD coordinated call to hand off site to Peg. Peg is the coach.

A follow up conference call was held with the following from KJPSC: Janet Brock, LaShanna M. Harris, Danny Norris, Charles A Wilkerson, Stephanie Reynolds, Clorissa Novak. Professor Josh provided an update on their Trauma Informed Initiative; they held a Leadership Conference to kick things off with 7 sites that applied and were accepted.They continue to host "Learning Conferences with the sites based on pre-survey's conducted for needs; they focus on the screening and assessment projects; they host T4T training on trauma informed care and resiliency. The next learning community will focus on implementation of the trauma screening instrument. Audits continue in both DJJ and DOC. DOC received 100% ratings on 2/3 of completed audits. DJJ facilities are 50% complete including 8-9 sites exceeding Standards. DOC will host Investigator training for 92 staff in November.The binary Screening Assessment pilot sites are being set up through the Learning Community meetings. The DOC is ready to put out a bid for additional cameras; they indicated they did not need assistance from Ohio at this time (I made a connection for them). Web based curriculum has been available on their internet site.They are finalizing web based training for residents (male/female) in English and Spanish. They also produce a documentary series available for staff on the web.

They are interested in future grant monies related to trauma informed care.

On December 23, 2015 the PREA Grant Coach, Peg Ritchie, conducted a quarterly conference call with the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet and Kentucky Department of Corrections staff to discuss updates on the Goals and Objectives for their grant. The main focus of their grant is collaboration between state agencies and local rape crisis centers. The majority of funds are for contracts to develop a trauma-informed curriculum, vulnerability instrument assessment and the DOC readiness assessment related to audits. They have seven major objective and have completed three of them. They are in the process of requesting approval from BJA to re-purpose the “readiness assessment funds.” The re-purposed funds, if approved, will be used for additional IT functions within their Kentucky Offender Management System. The enhancements will include triggers for when a PREA reassessment needs to be completed, for example. They have already produced a document and assessment in detail of the work to be completed. The “readiness assessment” funds are not needed at this time due to audits completed to date which were successful due to their mock audits performed by 17 internal DOJ certified auditors. General input was provided by the coach in relationship to audit progress and changing needs due to their auditor consortium.

Kentucky Justice and Public Safety
Quarterly Update, March 17, 2016
Attendees: Charles Williams, PREA Coordinator, Danny Norris, DOC Program Director, LaShana Harris, DJJ PREA Coordinator, Janet Brock, Program Manager and Supervisor, Clorissa Novak, Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs, Tracy Barnes, Fiscal Manager for PREA, and Marjorie Stanek, Program Manager for the Vulnerability Assessment, and Peg Ritchie, PRC Coach

On March 17, 2016, the PREA Grant Coach, conducted a quarterly conference call with the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet and Kentucky Department of Corrections staff to discuss updates on the Goals and Objectives for their grant. The main focus of their grant is collaboration between state agencies and local rape crisis centers. The majority of funds are for contracts to develop a trauma-informed curriculum, vulnerability instrument assessment, cameras and a web based training curriculum for staff. They have five major objective and have completed three of the remaining 5 (80 %). They are in the process of requesting approval from BJA to re-purpose the “readiness assessment funds” and funds for “audits.” The re-purposed funds, if approved, will be used for additional IT functions within their Kentucky Offender Management System. The enhancements will include triggers for when a PREA reassessment needs to be completed, for example. They have already produced a document and assessment in detail of the work to be completed. The “readiness assessment” funds are not needed at this time due to audits completed to date which were successful due to previous mock audits performed by 17 DOJ certified auditors as part of a regional consortium for audits.
Additional Objective Updates:
Vulnerability Assessment:
The Vulnerability Assessment Instrument is now in its second phase. They have reviewed the instrument in relationship to current literature reviews, cognitive based interviews with staff, and consultation with their research team. The results of this review included amendments and changes to the instrument which is now implemented, as of February 1, 2016, in all group homes, regional detention facilities and youth centers. They are working on cut off scores with the data and will have a Standard setting meeting the end of April. The staff are working with the clients to go over the cut off scores in order to identify appropriate interventions. They are in the process of preparing the Phase II report with the changes. The Council of Juvenile Corrections Administrators have shown an interest through their PREA Committee in having a copy of the instrument and have asked Kentucky staff to present their findings at their next national PREA Committee Meeting. Additional states have shown an interest in validating the instrument with their population. Other states could participate in the future after Kentucky has more data to validate the instrument. Kentucky would have to be able to access the data of other states to assist in this validation process. They indicated that they would need additional grant funding to take on such a task nationally. Kentucky DJJ is the first agency in the United Stated to use such a validated instrument.
Trauma Informed Care Program:
The staff indicated that they have completed the Trauma Grief Adolescent training for 40 staff. The University of Kentucky is finishing their evaluation of the pilot site before they integrate this curriculum in all facilities. The University of California (UCLA), will train staff in May on the Post Traumatic Delayed Stress instrument which will then be incorporated as a treatment tool. The Trauma Center of the Justice Institute in Boston will facilitate training on Yoga for trauma survivors. Staff attended training on the physical and neurological aspects of trauma recovery. They are in the process of writing an article in reference to their work once their evaluation is completed.
Web based training on Trauma Informed Care:
The web based training is complete for annual training on Trauma Informed Care. They are also integrating a web based Youth Education module in April. The general PREA training web series is available for staff. They indicated there is a need for a Training for Trainers (T4T) again to assure that all trainers are up to speed on the training and that procedures are implemented in a consistent manner statewide.

GAN Funding Update:
The GAN to repurpose $ 125,000 from the Readiness Assessment objective and the $43,000 related to the objective of hiring auditors, is still in review by BJA. They recently sent BJA some additional information. They indicated that this process is cumbersome and has held up their ability to move forward with their IT Management System additions related to PREA. The additions will allow them to have PREA related incidents input 24 hours a day, provide data on incidents in relationship to facility location, provide demographic data on victims as well as perpetrators, record the time of incidents and track 30 day reassessment dates, housing changes etc. They will be able to assess staff incidents related to pat downs, for example, and look for potential problem staff and areas as well as staff profiles related to repeated incidents related to allegations.
Camera Update:
The staff indicated that they have had numerous audits with demonstrated compliance and they realized that the additional cameras played a critical role especially in relationship to high officer turnover. They still need additional cameras.
What are challenges?
The GAN process continues to be challenging. Another challenge is the amount of funds needed for travel as staff go from facility to facility for continued training and consortium audits in Missouri and Kansas. They will submit a new GAN to use the recently released travel money for cancelled D.C. meetings for local travel.
Focus Areas in the next 3 months:
The research staff will finish the evaluation of the revised Vulnerability Assessment Instrument as they continue to complete their data entry and analysis. They will continue their efforts to integrate the trauma informed care program and goals from a pilot to rolling this culture and treatment change to an additional 7 sites. Their goal is to continue the statewide integration of trauma related care and culture in the near future. They will continue their audits at numerous facility detention sites, prisons and about 12 Community Correction sites. They will continue investigator training for Community Corrections staff.
Other:
The coach also reminded them of additional travel money now being available and will send them a couple of notes from BJA on the GAN process. The next Quarterly Update will be early in June 2016.

Kentucky Justice and Public Safety, 2014
Quarterly Update, June 22, 2016
Attendees: Charles Williams, PREA Coordinator, LaShana Harris, DJJ PREA Coordinator, Janet Brock, Program Manager and Supervisor, Clorissa Novak, Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs, Tracy Barnes, Fiscal Manager for PREA, and Marjorie Stanek, Program Manager for the Vulnerability Assessment, and Peg Ritchie, PRC Coach
On June 22, 2016, the PREA Grant Coach, conducted a quarterly conference call with the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet and Kentucky Department of Corrections staff to discuss updates on the Goals and Objectives for their grant. The main focus of their grant is collaboration between state agencies and local rape crisis centers as well as overall successful implementation of PREA Standards in juvenile and adult facilities. Objectives included contracts to develop a trauma-informed curriculum, validate a vulnerability instrument assessment, implement cameras and develop a web based training curriculum for staff. They have five major objectives and have completed all of the objectives (100%) to date. They are in the process of requesting approval from BJA to re-purpose “readiness assessment” funds and additional funds for Investigator Training, Community Corrections audit reviews, and meetings for PREA Compliance Managers.
Objective Updates:
Vulnerability Assessment:
The Vulnerability Assessment Instrument is now in its second phase. The initial draft of the evaluation study is completed. The PRC staff and the Coach have reviewed the Evaluation Study. They have been requested to provide an overview of the Evaluation Study to the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators (CJCA) during their meeting in conjunction with the American Correctional Association in August, 2016. Dave Gaspar, PRC, will be the coordinator of this effort. LaShana Harris presented a webinar to the CJCA PREA Committee during the monthly conference call.

Trauma Informed Care Program:
Integration of trauma informed care continues to be merged with schools of thought related to biological, psychological, and neurological treatment. They are working with staff from the University of Cincinnati on grieving and cognitive therapy and the University of Connecticut for Trauma Sensitive Yoga. Staff from UCLA are assisting with implementation and training of the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Assessment Tool. They are preparing to train staff on dialectical behavioral therapy for youth that are self-inflicted mutilators. Professional learning communities have been developed for “fidelity reviews” of these initiatives.
Administrators assumed clinical and mental health staff had the tools to implement trauma informed care. A needs assessment demonstrated that staff didn’t have the tools for trauma informed treatment. Their goal is to build the treatment toolbox with what staff need to serve the caliber of youth they serve. Training has assisted staff morale and culture changes in the Department.
GAN Funding Update:
The GAN to repurpose $ 125,000 from the Readiness Assessment objective and the $43,000 related to the objective of hiring auditors is still in review by BJA. They recently sent BJA some additional information. They indicated that this process is now impeding their opportunity to proceed with new objectives in the time frame of the grant which ends in September. On May 24th they received an e-mail from Lucia Turk indicating that their request is being reviewed by the Policy Office. They will most likely request a grant extension. The monies not utilized for travel to Washington D.C. will be requested to be used for continued analysis of the Vulnerability Risk Assessment (Victims and Sexual Physical Aggressive Screener or VSPA-S).
Camera Update:
They are still purchasing additional cameras. The cameras assist staff in investigation especially in determining allegations that are “unfounded.”
Focus Areas in the next 3 months:
The research staff will finish the evaluation of the revised Vulnerability Assessment Instrument as they continue to complete their data entry and analysis. They will continue their efforts to integrate the trauma informed care program. GAN approval is important for continued opportunities in several areas.
Other:
All juvenile and adult facilities have been audited with 100% compliance and the Governor has certified compliance with all facilities.
The Sexual Assault Association will meet with inmates as a group to obtain feedback on their services. They continue to assist the DOC with investigator training modules and they train advocates on PREA and trauma informed care.
The next conference call will be in mid-August, 2016.

Kentucky Justice and Public Safety, 2014
Quarterly Update, August 23, 2016
Attendees: Charles Williams, PREA Coordinator, LaShana Harris, DJJ PREA Coordinator, Janet Brock, Program Manager and Supervisor, Marjorie Stanek, Program Manager for the Vulnerability Assessment, and Peg Ritchie, PRC Coach
On August 23, 2016, the PREA Grant Coach, conducted a quarterly conference call with the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet and Kentucky Department of Corrections staff to discuss updates on the Goals and Objectives for their grant. The main focus of their grant is collaboration between state agencies and local rape crisis centers as well as overall successful implementation of PREA Standards in juvenile and adult facilities. Objectives included contracts to develop a trauma-informed curriculum, validate a vulnerability instrument assessment, implement cameras and develop a web based training curriculum for staff. BJA did approve the GAN for $465,000 and the grant extension to September 30, 2017. The new objectives include PREA “readiness assessments,” program security reviews, surveillance cameras, Investigator Training, Community Corrections audit reviews, and meetings for PREA Compliance Managers.
Objective Updates:
Vulnerability Assessment:
The GAN to repurpose travel funds of $5,600. Will be used to evaluate dimensionality aspects of the four scales related to vulnerability victimization, engagement in sexuality and physicality. The evaluation will assure that the questions within the scales are contributing to expected outcomes. For example, the question related to “past trauma” may or may not be in the proper scale or it could be influencing other areas within the scale.
The Vulnerability Assessment Instrument evaluation funds have been expended in this grant.
Trauma Informed Care Program:
Integration of trauma informed care continues to be merged with schools of thought related to biological, psychological, and neurological treatment.
The implementation of the Trauma Informed Care program contract will be continued with Duke University through the end of September, 2016. The “Sparks” training for residential staff (Chronic Stress for juveniles)and other trauma strategies will continue with a clinical symposium to integrate clinical and counseling staff into the overall trauma informed strategy including performance practices and Action Plans.
The Kentucky staff will collect data and review outcomes for the Trauma Informed Yoga program. Data collection and outcomes for the Trauma and Grief Program will be completed by the University of Connecticut. Data collection and evaluation of the “SPARKS” program will be done by Duke University. The Dialectical therapy program evaluation has not been set up. They continue to work on fidelity issues and expansion of the Trauma Informed Program throughout the system.
They are working with staff from the University of Cincinnati on grieving and cognitive therapy. Staff from UCLA are assisting with implementation and training of the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Assessment Tool.
Focus Areas in the next 3 months:
The Kentucky DOC will focus on publishing a solicitation for auditors as they continue outsourcing. They are developing a schedule for multiple audits within the next three years including pre-audits for 38 halfway houses. They will most likely provide another Investigator Training in 2016 using TMG curriculum. They do invite jails to participate in Investigator Training and their mock audits.
Other:
Kentucky has decided not to continue within a multi-state consortium; they determined that the quality of audits did not meet their expectations. Kentucky has numerous auditors and they will continue the development of their auditor skills through “mock audits” within the state for all types of facilities.
Coach Assistance:
The coach will assist with some ideas for journals and other resources for publication of articles Lashana Harris is working on. Ideas will include juvenile, community corrections and prison publications related to their trauma informed care and evaluations as well as mental health journals. Next call late November.